Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department has received evidence that Russia has committed war crimes in Syria; under what international treaties or conventions any such crimes committed by that country fall to be (a) investigated and (b) prosecuted; and what discussions he has had with his European and other counterparts on such crimes.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has the jurisdiction to judge and prosecute war crimes. However, neither Russia nor Syria are state parties to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC. The only way to secure an investigation by the ICC would be for the UN Security Council (UNSC) to refer the situation in Syria to the ICC. This would require a UNSC resolution. Russia and China vetoed a UNSC resolution which proposed referring all those responsible for war-crimes and crimes against humanity, regardless of affiliation, to the ICC in May 2014. We regularly raise allegations of atrocities being committed in Syria with international counterparts, most recently in the UN Security Council on Saturday 8 October, when Russia vetoed the proposed UNSC resolution calling for an end to the bombardment of Aleppo. Deliberate targeting of civilians or humanitarian personnel would be a war crime. The attack on a UN aid convoy near Aleppo on 19 September was a clear violation of the most basic of humanitarian principles. Russia appears to be partnering with the Syrian regime in the attacks on Aleppo which are causing large numbers of civilian casualties.